


sequence of events

by verity



Series: tween wolf [46]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Coming Out, Demonic Possession, Family Secrets, Friendship, Gen, Magic Revealed, Stilinski Family Feels, Team Up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-15
Updated: 2013-06-15
Packaged: 2017-12-15 02:41:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/844391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/verity/pseuds/verity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Grandma said I was gay?" Stiles says, jaw dropped.</p><p>"Of course, that's what you took away from that," John says.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. full of surprises

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blue_rocket_frost](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blue_rocket_frost/gifts).



> thanks to Ashe always for being my hero <3
> 
>  
> 
> note: John refers to his mother-in-law by her short name because no one in Nadya's family goes by their full name, for Reasons.

"So, you knew," Stiles says, sitting down on the bed. They're in John's room, down the hall from where Allison's sleeping, talking softly so their voices don't carry.

John sits down next to him. "Knew _what_ , son?"

"About—" Stiles inhales sharply. "About Mom."

That's not the question John was expecting, but it’s fair enough. "Nadya always said that stuff with her mom, that was superstition, old family—I didn't ask her about it," he says. "She wrote a lot of letters, called home a lot, but she was always here with you, with me. Not flying around on a broomstick or anything."

"Grandma never tells me anything," Stiles says. "Deaton says Mom used to do work on magic theory, academic work. She wrote papers. I don't understand them."

Nadya used to get published in Russian journals all the time. She had more publications than anyone else teaching at the community college, should have been at a bigger, better school, but she didn't want to move. "It's peaceful here," she said. "Safe. It's good for Stiles." They weren't friends with the Hales, but Nadya and Talia would nod at each other when they ran into each other in the supermarket.

John shakes his head. "I didn't—you know more than I do there. I knew about you, though. You started writing to Masha, made about a hundred of[ those pot holder things](http://www.weavezine.com/content/potholder-loom-basics-and-beyond), and I kept finding jars of olive oil and dead leaves around the house—"

" _Infusions_ —" Stiles says.

"So I called Masha," John says.

—

It was the first time he’d tried talked to his mother-in-law without Nadya or her sister to interpret; Masha didn't know half the words John was saying, made him call back the next day when Tanya was over. Tanya didn't understand what John was asking at first, when he tried to hedge around it, saying _your family traditions_ over and over until he came right out with it, "Why is my son leaving weird shit all over the house? Why is he hooking rugs? Why did he ask me to buy him a lavender bush?"

There was a long pause with Masha whispering in the background. "Mama says that maybe he wants to take up gardening," Tanya said.

"What?" John said.

Tanya sighed. "You have to understand, John, it's a woman's tradition."

John rubbed his forehead. "Are you saying he’s gay?" Maybe he hadn't been clear enough about—

"Mama says she can't talk about this with you," Tanya said. "I'm sorry. It's—Volodya is, men in our family, they don't—"

"You chop wood, you fix car," Masha said loudly.

Tanya cleared her throat. "Volodya does not need to know—these things. Mama has tried to discourage him. He can't hurt himself with plants or yarn. Magic—"

"Magic," John said. He looked over at the alarm clock; it was 5:28AM. He wished he was dreaming.

"Mama says Nadya didn't think he needed to be taught," Tanya said. "You should respect her wishes."

"Right," John said. “I understand.”

—

"Grandma said I was gay?" Stiles says, jaw dropped.

"Of course, that's what you took away from that," John says. "No, your grandma—"

"Bisexual," Stiles says quickly. "Not gay."

"Well—" John says, bites off _this day is just full of surprises_. He reaches over, puts his arm around his bisexual wizard kid. "That's, that's fine with me, son. You know, I didn't want to assume, with the knitting, and the flowers, and all the older women friends who keep telling me what a sweet boy you are—"

Stiles relaxes against John's side. "So you came up with _magic_ before you came up with _gay_."

"You were 12," John says. "And then Laura outed you. She said—I'm sorry, Stiles—that you couldn't tie your own shoes in the magic department, so I should just leave it alone."

"But you didn't want to talk about it?" Stiles says.

"No," John says, "But I think we need to, now."

Stiles sighs. "Can we do manly silence instead?"


	2. it's weird for me, too

"So," his dad says, sitting down in his recliner. "You're going to give me a sequence of events, top-to-bottom, all of you. Stiles, I'm starting with you. When did you figure out Allison was—Christ, I can't—possessed by a demon?"

"It's okay, Sheriff, it's weird for me, too," Scott says. He's sitting on the floor next to Stiles, their shoulders bumping together, with Lydia and Allison on the couch behind them. "I didn't even know about—"

"I totally told you about demons!" Stiles says. "I told you—"

"That was right after we watched _Paranormal Activity_ ," Scott says. "So—"

" _Stiles_ ," Dad says.

"Uh, when I saw the demon? Last night? I don't—I've never actually seen a demon before." Scott elbows him; Stiles elbows Scott back. "Look—”

"Allison smelled weird," Scott volunteers. "I mean—not bad weird, just—like magic? Like how it smells when one of Stiles's spell goes wrong."

Dad raises his eyebrows. "Does that happen a lot?"

"Yeah," Scott says at the same time as Stiles says, " _No_."

"Okay, then," his dad says, "Moving on—"

—

They should have given witness statements last night or at least be _questioned_ separately now—Stiles wants to whine about how this is not proper police procedure, but Allison spent all last night in custody, so maybe it's not the best plan to remind his dad about his badge. Instead, Dad gets out a whiteboard and starts making notes.

Lydia and Stiles saw the same thing, the black fog rising up from Allison's shoulders; Scott didn't _see_ anything, but he did smell ash and ozone right before he got too scared to do anything but scream. "You smelled like that at the bowling alley, too," he says, twisting back to look at Allison. "You do a little, most of the time, but that day it was really strong."

"It came out then," Allison says. "Just—there was this guy, he was being—I thought he recognized me, from—I felt scared and it just came out protect me, I guess. But nothing happened. "

"Did you feel threatened at the party?" Stiles's dad asked. "Or just now, in the shower?"

"No," Allison says. "It hurt, but—and last night, I didn't feel scared at all. Not at first."

"Maybe the demon's afraid of water," Scott says.

Stiles shakes his head. "Uh, I don't think so," he says. "Demons aren't—they're not really afraid of anything? They're just hungry most of the time? You can't kill them. You can only—persuade them to go away."

"I read everything Deaton gave you, and I just looked through it again," Lydia says, leaning forward to drop the papers in Stiles's lap. "There's nothing in here about water, not with this demon. The only thing that'll call it is blood and the only thing that'll bind it is salt and blood together."

"So what's it trying to do?" his dad says, tapping the capped end of the marker against the white board. "If its M.O. is feeding and protecting its access to food, which would be its host—Allison—is it trying to branch out? Could it be getting—hungrier?"

"Why didn't it feed at the station?" Stiles says.

There's a long, frustrated pause. Scott's stomach rumbles.

—

The bracelet with his mom and grandma's hair in it did okay with dispelling demonic forces, but the blue cotton one is toast. Stiles doesn't have time to make a new one, so he pulls out the first bracelet he ever made, gold and green and lumpy. That one's far from his best work, but Scott wore it until he outgrew it, and Stiles can feel a pleasant thrum of _friendship_ as soon as he picks the bracelet up. Allison's wrist is a perfect fit.

"How does it feel when you do magic?" she asks, looking up at Stiles. They're by themselves again, Scott and Dad ordering pizza, Lydia in the bathroom. "Why—I know it's not easy for you. Why do you keep doing it?"

Stiles focuses on tying a neat, clean knot, takes a deep breath when he lets go. "Do you still play viola?"

"Before I—yeah," she says. “Pretty well.”

"You sucked when you started, though," he says. "Everybody does. School's—school is easy for me, I don't care about it. Magic, I can feel it, though. It's—Scott and I are anchors for each other, I feel him all the time, I just—I know him, like I know myself, okay? The more I do magic, the more everything's like that. And my mom—she could do that, too. I just—" Stiles doesn't realize he's getting choked up until the end. It's—he's stopped focusing on _why_ , anymore, just _what_ , _how_. Help Scott become an alpha. Help Erica deal with her seizures. Help Allison not be completely consumed by demonic forces. Stiles doesn't want to save the world; he's not Harry Potter, he's just Scott's scrappy hedgewitch BFF. He can't save his friends or fix them on his own, but he cares about them. So, with their help, he's going to try.

—

"Hey, demon question," Lydia says, sitting between Stiles and Allison on the couch. "I know it's bound to Allison, so it can't go anywhere, but—could someone else be calling it?"

**Author's Note:**

> I'm [ladyofthelog](http://ladyofthelog.tumblr.com) on tumblr.


End file.
